The Centre will launch an end-to-end prediction system for predicting thunderstorms and lightning by April this year. Talking to media in New Delhi yesterday, Earth Sciences Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology-IITM and India Meteorological Department- IMD are developing prediction tools for thunderstorm and lightning. IITM Pune has already installed 48 lightning sensors around the country which can locate such activities on real time. He said, for strengthening its observational network, IMD will install 10 new X-band weather radars over north-west Himalayas – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand by the end of this year. <br />''<br />''Dr Vardhan also said, 11 more C-band radars will be installed over the plains including one over Andaman Nicobar Islands and one over Lakshadweep Islands by 2020. The Minister said,  IMD is also installing 200 Automated Weather Stations at District Agromet Units for providing weather services to farmers. He said, the IMD will also be installing 100 new Automated Weather Stations including rain-gauges to monitor weather activities in Kerala.<br />